Time For Truth
by ginnyweasley777
Summary: Sequel to A Night To Remember. Alice arrives at Leopard's Den and Danny finds out that Charlotte is his daughter.


Time For Truth

Chapter One: Surprise

I breathed a sigh of relief when she stopped the jeep. It had been a long journey from the last place I'd been working at in the city and I was eager to get out and get started, albeit the nature of the job didn't exactly bode well - an outbreak of rabies threatening game reserves.

Charlotte jumped out immediately and I followed, slamming the jeep door behind me.

'Hi, there,' said a man's voice.

'Hello, I'm Charlotte.'

'Well I'm Danny. I hope you're not the new vet.'

'That would be me,' I said, taking off my sunglasses. I stopped short when I looked into the man's face. 'Danny?'

'Hello, Alice,' he replied, a look of surprise evident upon his face.

Charlotte looked curiously between the two of us who now stared at each other in silence. 'You know each other?'

'Yes, darling, we met a long time ago,' I replied, my heart pounding furiously in my chest.

'So Charlotte's your daughter?' asked Danny curiously.

'Yeah, we go everywhere together,' I replied, putting my arm protectively around Charlotte.

Danny had a stony look on his face. 'Has she been on an operation like this before?'

'No, have you?' I asked before I could stop myself.

'Have you been in Africa long?'

'I've practised here for a few years now.'

'In the bush?'

'No, in the city mostly, as a locum. I am fully trained, if that's what's worrying you,' I said definatly, remembering that I hadn't yet qualified when I'd last seen Danny.

'Then you'll know how to handle one of these?' He handed me a dart gun.

'Yeah, just about,' I replied sarcastically.

'Good, let's go.'

I turned to Charlotte. 'You wait in the car.'

'Don't I get a gun too?' she asked cheekily.

'No, honey, you get a crayon. Come on.' I was fully aware of Danny was watching us intently as I led Charlotte back to the jeep and settled her in it.

We finally started out into the bush, but neither of us spoke a word, both wrapped up in our thoughts. I didn't honestly know what to say to him. The words 'by the way, Charlotte's your daughter' didn't exactly sound right, even in my head. I wasn't sure if Danny would guess or not.

The awkward silence continued to stretch between us until it finally reached breaking point. Danny broke it first. 'I wouldn't have thought this was the best time to bring your daughter into the bush,' he said.

'We go everywhere together,' I replied shortly; we were skirting dangerously close to the subject I wanted to avoid at all costs.

Danny took the decision out of my hands. 'What about her father?'

I stumbled over a rock. 'She has no father.'

Danny stopped in his tracks and spun to face me. I couldn't describe the expression on his face. He caught my arm as I made to brush past him. 'Is, is she i_my_/i daughter?'

I wrenched her arm free and started to walk again without answering.

'Alice?'

I snapped. 'Don't do this, Danny! If I had known that you were here then I would never have come.'

'Don't you think I had a right to know?' he exclaimed.

'Don't you think I had a right to know you were married before we jumped into bed together?' I countered.

Danny was saved from answering as we'd just come upon a herd of blespoks to be vaccinated.

center***/center

The day was quickly turning into a complete disaster; Danny thought that we should shoot animals that were still healthy, just because they might have already been exposed to rabies.

'Look, Alice, I didn't ask them to put me in charge, but they did, so can we just finish the job and go home?' he exclaimed.

'Yeah, home to your game reserve. Trust them to choose someone with a vested interest,' I replied bitterly.

'Say's the woman who brings her daughter to a quarantine operation,' he muttered.

I was furious, and I spun around to face him angrily. 'Don't bring my daughter into this! You know nothing about us!'

'Oh, but you know everything about me?'

'What's that supposed to mean?'

'I think you know.'

'No, Danny, I don't know, so why don't you tell me?'

'You think I'm the bad person for not telling you I was married that night, but you're the one who's kept a daughter from me for the last ten years!'

'How i_could_/i I tell you?' Danny opened his mouth to reply, but I cut him off sharply. 'I knew i_nothing_/i about you other than your name, so why would I try to find you, and probably wreck your marriage, to tell you that I was pregnant?'

Danny shook his head wordlessly.

'It wouldn't have done any good at all.' With that I stalked away back to base.

center***/center

Arriving at Leopard's Den was the last thing I wanted to do, but Danny had insisted after he'd saved our lives from the rabid leopard. I don't know what had gone through his head in those moments, but what I felt was bad enough.

'Oh, hello, you must be the other vet,' said an older woman, coming down the steps from the veranda that surrounded the house. 'Danny was expecting a man.'

'Yeah, I'm definitely not what he was expecting,' I replied wryly.

I suppose it couldn't have been any easier for Danny, me turning up out of the blue, assigned to help with the rabies outbreak. I mean, we'd only met once, and that had been ten years ago and…memorable, to say the least.

No matter what I said about wishing he'd told me that night that he was married, I could never regret any of it, or want to change things at all, because it had resulted in Charlotte, and I would give my life for her.

center***/center

'So how long have you been a vet, Alice?' asked Georgina, as we sat around the table outside that evening. Danny was noticeable only by his absence, having gone to fix up a vulture.

'About ten years,' I replied nervously…to sit and talk to his family was awkward.

'What brought you to Africa?' asked DuPlessis.

'Er, I think it was a seven-four-seven,' I replied, relying on sarcasm to help me out of the situation.

He gestured to Charlotte. 'And this one, is her father here or back there?'

I looked down at my plate. 'He's neither really.'

'What do you mean "he's neither"?'

'I mean, he's neither here nor there.' Well, I wasn't i_exactly_/i lying, was I. Danny wasn't back in Scotland, but neither was he right there at the table.

'Anders, Alice is a guest, not a murder suspect,' said Nomsa.

I breathed a sigh of relief when the topic changed.

center***/center

I still hadn't spoken about Charlotte anymore to Danny; we'd both skirted around the topic, and had focused on urgent matter of the rabies outbreak. Thankfully we'd figured out where it had been coming from, and the area had been sealed off.

I had hoped to try and clear the air with Danny, but he'd gone to a birthday party they'd organised for Evan at the local bar. Charlotte had persuaded me to go, and we'd been on our way there when we'd come across an injured vulture, which was why I was now leaning over it on the operating table.

'Alice, what are you doing?' asked Rosie, hurrying into the room.

'Operating. If you want to scrub in, be my guest.'

'Look, I appreciate what you're trying to do, but really I'd rather my dad took care of this,' she said in a worried tone of voice.

'Danny's not here. I'm not going to let this bird die just to spare his feelings.'

'Just what is it between you and Dad?' she asked, watching intently as I worked.

My hand gave a slight tremor. 'What do you mean?' I asked as calmly as I could. i_Surely_/i she couldn't know anything?

'You just don't seem to get along.'

'Oh, it's nothing,' I replied dismissively. 'Just over the animals.'

'It didn't seem like nothing the other day,' prompted Rosie.

I flashed her a smile as I successfully removed the problem from the vulture. 'Nothing to worry about.'

She eyed me suspiciously, even as she voiced her surprise about the operation.

'If you think this is difficult, you should try doing it on a budgie,' I replied.

center***/center

'Charley, honey, wakey wakey,' I called out as I walked towards the animal pens. Charlotte was laid sound asleep in the straw. I moved to pick her up.

'No no, Alice, let me,' said Danny, hurrying towards me.

'No, it's fine,' I replied quickly.

'Oh, come one, you must be worn out,' he said easily.

It was an odd sort off feeling that I felt as I walked beside Danny, who was carrying a still-asleep Charlotte, towards the guest hut where I was staying. I think 'weird' was probably the best way to describe it…Charlotte being carried by her father who she didn't even know.

'Thanks for stepping into the breach,' said Danny as we walked towards the hut.

'Oh, I owed you one from the other day,' I replied as casually as I could.

'I'm sorry about this morning, and yesterday…I've kind of got out of the habit of sharing decision making,' he admitted.

'I'm a locum.' I shrugged. 'I'm used to it.'

'It must be hard on you two, moving about all the time,' said Danny quietly.

'It has it's advantages…you don't get attached to the patients, or their owners.' I could feel my face heating as I said this, and was glad for the cover of darkness.

'And what about family and friends, do they manage to keep in touch?'

'Well, I have Charlotte, and she has me…it's always been enough.'

'You're lucky - in my experience, when things are tough, it's always been family and friends that have got me through.'

'Yeah, well, in my experience, families are overrated.'

'Your father?' asked Danny quietly.

'Yeah.' I was shocked that he'd remembered from our conversation so long ago.

'Daddy?' said Charlotte sleepily against Danny's shoulder.

An odd look passed over Danny's face, which I was sure was mirrored on my own, even as a small part of me felt a thrill at hearing her say the word while in his arms. 'Shh, honey, you're dreaming,' I said. Danny passed Charlotte to me, and I stepped up to the doorway of the hut.

'Well, goodnight,' he said.

'Yeah, night,' I replied quietly, slipping through the door.


End file.
